MANILA - China is guaranteeing "safe passage" for all nations using the South China Sea, and it is willing to work with Asean to maintain peace in this strategic waterway, President Rodrigo Duterte has said.

Mr Duterte told reporters on Saturday (Nov 12) he discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping the arms build-up in occupied islands in the South China Sea.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the Vietnamese resort city of Danang.

He said Mr Xi told him: "No, it's nothing… He assured us again, 'Don't worry, you have all the rights of safe passage."

"He knows that if he goes to war, everything will blow up. He acknowledged that war cannot be promoted by anybody, but it would only mean destruction for all of us," he said.

Mr Duterte said in a news briefing on Thursday (Nov 9) that, as Asean chair, he had to inform Mr Xi "that everybody is worried".

"The whole of Asean is worried about how we should behave in the seas that are now militarised, afraid that there might be a mistake, and there would be shooting," he said.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea through which about US$3 trillion worth of goods pass every year, building and militarising artificial islands.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims there.

Mr Duterte said Mr Xi was "quite surprised about my coming in very strong".

The Straits Times

We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. But a log-in is still required for our PDFs.